


One coffee to save a life

by Feelingsinwinter



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: But it's funny, But it's there, Coffee Shop, Fluff and Angst, Funny, LMAO, Like, M/M, Protective Bucky Barnes, Reckless Tony Stark, Soft Tony, Tags Are Hard, To quote someone, XD, it happens in a, it's also, kind of, omg, there is some kind of stupidity here, this is so weird, tony why, very slight angst, very slight fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 18:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14920322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feelingsinwinter/pseuds/Feelingsinwinter
Summary: When one awkward guy shows up and offers Tony a coffee, all the while acting strangely, Tony wonders if he's being weirdly flirted with or if he's about to be threatened.The danger, though, doesn't come from the guy with a metal arm.





	One coffee to save a life

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "Pᴇʀsᴏɴ A ʙʀɪɴɢs Pᴇʀsᴏɴ B ᴀ ᴄᴏꜰꜰᴇᴇ" offered by Dapperanachronism.
> 
> I hope it'll be nice enough. I wrote it in one go to convince me I was still able to write, some time ago. I've been struggling with one piece of work that is not going as fast or as well as I wished it would. So, finding out I was still able to write something was a good surprise and a relief. Hope you'll enjoy! <3

Tony scowled at his laptop battery, trying to glare it into gaining some percentage but without anything to plug it to, there was nothing he could do to make it better. Some time soon, he’d have to leave the coffee shop and go back home to work there, no matter how empty and silent it was. There was no music loud enough to cover Pepper’s absence. Her ugly blanket wasn’t covering the back of his overpriced couch anymore and that was more depressing than it had any right to be. He had too much space in the dressing room and not enough of those useful products in the bathroom. His home didn’t feel like a home anymore, it felt like a graveyard where all his hopes were now resting, haunting the place with her laughs and sharp words.

It felt like ghosts lived there instead of him, memories of a past life with no place left for a new one.

With a heavy sigh, Tony gathered his belongings and closed his laptop with unnecessary force, leaning to put it back in his bag. The loud rattling of the chair in front of him made him straighten to look up at a rough looking man who refused to meet his eyes.

The man settled in the chair and put two cups of coffee on the table. With the awkwardness of a kid, he used his index to push one of the cup toward Tony. His general appearance called for fright and wariness but Tony looked at him with a slight frown, confused. The man had a few days old beard, haunted eyes and while one hand was entirely made of metal, ‘Stark model NPC-256’, Tony thought distractedly, the other one looked as rough as the man did. Calluses and scars covered his fingers, the back of his hand and up to his wrist where the sleeve hide it from Tony’s view.

Still, the man refused to meet Tony’s eyes despite his best attempts. Fighting down his growing exasperation and refusing the acknowledge the beginning of uneasiness, Tony wrapped his fingers around the offered coffee and pulled it closer. He smelled it, surprised to find black coffee without any of the possibility the coffee shop offered to spite it. No sugar either, though he couldn’t be sure of that before tasting it. He was agreeably surprised by the stranger choice and also very much decided on not drinking that coffee.

“Thank you... ?” he said, drawing it out to push an answer out of his new company.

“James,” the man blurted with a glance to Tony. He quickly lowered his eyes back to his coffee, which he was now cradling with both hands.

Grey-blue eyes, Tony noticed, wondering if the man was there to kill him or just a very awkward flirt. Although he could be a fan but Tony wasn’t entirely sure about that, fan tended to be over-excited and all over the place, not… not like that. The man looked stressed and jittery, not exactly like someone on drugs, Tony could recognize that behavior quite easily but more like someone anxious. About to do something they shouldn’t do.

“Should I fear for my life, James?” Tony said carefully, entirely aware of his surroundings and how late it was. Being back home might not be his first worry, finally. Getting there alive seemed more like it.

James looked aside, still refusing to meet Tony’s eyes, and took a deep breath before turning his head and finally staring right back at him. James had a rough, dangerous edge to him and Tony modified his stance ever so slightly, preparing himself to dodge and run. As if aware of his intentions, James smirked a small, dark thing that sent chills running down Tony’s spine. Strangely enough, it seemed to be more approving than threatening, which made no sense.

“Maybe you should, yes,” James said then, his voice a low rumble.

Dark, dangerous, homeless people shouldn’t have such a sexy bedroom voice and using it on him before jumping his bones to fucking kill him. Where was fairness when someone needed it, for fuck’s sake?

Leaning forward, James looked at Tony from under his lashes, his entire body language going from stressed out to outright flirting in the blink of an eye. His smirk went from dark to criminally sexy, shoulders relaxed but eyes deadly serious. Tony leaned backward, putting his body out of reach without being overly obvious. At least he thought he did. The man’s smile told him he wasn’t being as subtle as he thought he was.

“Play along,” James said, cocking his head to the side, a few strands of hair shadowing the side of his face. The glint of a chain caught Tony’s eyes and he thought he recognized the necklace of dog tags but it could be anything else. “I’m not here to hurt you, only to warn you,” James added calmly, his eyes tracking Tony with the kind of focus Tony had only seen when Rhodey was in function and dealing with a serious matter.

“Yeah,” Tony scoffed, “right, I’m feeling safer now, thank you. Please go on.”

He could still take his bag and his laptop under his arm and go off as fast as he could. But the guy was built like a house, just a few inches taller than Tony but with broad shoulders and probably thighs to match them. Tony recognize trouble when he saw it. It generally didn’t look as hot as that guy did, though.

James snorted and put his chin in his metal hand, still managing to look charming as fuck while his eyes screamed danger. It was fairly terrifying and an awful turn on. What the fuck was wrong with his brain.

The amusement dancing in Bucky’s eyes at Tony’s answer, though, eased a bit of Tony’s worries.

“A guy’s been lurking in front of the coffee for the past hours, James revealed, keeping his flirting act effortlessly. “I’ve been here since…” he looked up toward the clock and frowned a little, “three pm,” he said like it was a surprise. “Everyone who was there when you entered has left, except you and this guy that’s been going back and forth between here and the grey Subaru parked at the corner.”

James reached out and Tony fought down the urge to lean out of reach, glaring at him as the man feigned to put a strand back behind Tony’s ear. Well, maybe it wasn’t entirely untrue since Tony definitely needed a haircut but it was beside the point.

“He’s been watching you all along and getting impatient,” James said as his hand retreated.

“Right, because you haven’t been watching me either,” Tony snarked, leaning back against his chair and as far as possible, using the motion to throw a careless look outside. He saw nothing and no one, which didn’t mean anything but definitely didn’t help his uneasiness either. James smirked when Tony’s eyes went back to him.

Why in the world Tony refused to take a gun with him, when he went out, exactly? He shouldn’t have dumped Happy on his way here either. He could use his bodyguard’s help right now.

“I’ve been watching _him_ ,” James rectified, sipping at his coffee before mimicking Tony’s posture and crossing his arms over his chest. “Mostly.” He added, like an afterthought.

From what Tony could see, he wore a hoodie who had seen better days and ratty jeans. Not exactly the killer’s best choice of cloth but Tony had seen worse when he was younger and easy to kidnap despite his parents’ best attempts at protecting him.

Not once James made a gesture to indicate where the supposed man was like any normal guy would have, his sharp eyes staying stubbornly focused on Tony.

“I don’t know if I should feel insulted, scared or offended,” Tony said with a smirk of his own, the banter coming easily. Judging by the happy glint in the man’s eyes, James liked it.

“Oh but don’t worry, doll,” he purred and leant forward, smirking roguishly, “I’ve been watchin’ you too and I gotta say, I liked what I saw.”

Tony snorted, smiling despite himself. It was a nice drawl, a nice pet name and an accent he already had heard somewhere but was having a hard time remembering where. Not that it matter. For now.

“So, what are you suggesting, cowboy? Are you here to save me?”

“Something like that, yeah,” James said, looking slightly unsure now and Tony got a glimpse of the anxious man he had seen first. It relaxed him a little and he leaned forward, putting both of his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands, staring at James with attention.

“”What do you propose we do, then?”

“Before I tell you my plan, what do you think of a date once we’re out of there,” James said with a shy smile, straightening a little as he brought his chair closer to the table. It was going against the idea of going out but it only made Tony smile and arched an eyebrow.

“We’re already in a coffee shop, how about we do the date now and see how long my stalker is willing to wait before giving up or trying something stupid?”

That startled a laugh out of James. “I gotta say, I like the idea.”

Tony smiled then, some of his uneasiness melting away as he draw his phone out. “Wait a second, I just gotta send a text to a friend then I’m all yours.”

“It’s a date,” James said with an easy grin.

“Deal,” Tony said, his fingers already flying over his phone’s screen as he typed his message.

He indicated the situation and his whereabout, absolutely certain of getting an hearful for it later but he couldn’t care less. Either James was there to kill him and would try something before Happy could get there or he was telling the truth and Happy would be there with help to take care of the situation if necessary. And bring Tony home at the end of it.

Either way, there was nothing more Tony could do but enjoy the date with a fearsome stranger that either just saved his ass a lot of trouble or was about to kill him. Exactly the kind of thrilling date Tony enjoyed.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [Tumblr !](http://feelingsinwinter.tumblr.com/)


End file.
